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It’s back! And it honestly hasn’t changed that much in two months.
If you have been following the slow progress of the 2024-25 New JNCHES negotiations between employers and unions, today brings the next step on the journey.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has published a “full and final” offer covering pay and related issues, following yet another year in which the negotiations progressed via the dispute resolution process.
The previous offer in this cycle was published in early July, and offered a stage uplift of between 2.5 per cent (towards the top of the pay scale) and 5.7 per cent towards the bottom. This would have been expressed as a £900 uplift for all spine points from 1 August 2024, with the remainder settled by 1 March 2025 – applied after all spine points had been adjusted to meet the National Living Wage. Such was the financial pressure on institutions, that there was a possibility that the pay offer could be deferred at provider level with discussion required with local union representatives.
Two months of “dispute process” discussion have not yielded any change to this offer – we are looking at fundamentally the same proposition as we were in July. Back then, UCU’s branch delegate meeting voted not to pursue industrial action (a 55 per cent majority), but were keen to enter dispute resolution. At the time we noted:
The notable thing about this New JNCHES round has been the among of time (3 months) and the number of meetings that has taken place – the sense from UCEA is that every option has been explored and there is really not much more that is going to shift in time for an uplift to begin
This appears to be what has come to pass.
With the letter sent on 27 August and seven working days available to respond the unions will have already shared their feelings on this latest offer, though as yet none of the five involved (Unite, Unison, GMB, EIS/ULA, and UCU) have published a response. Unison and EIS/ULA have recently concluded member consultations on the potential for industrial action related to the July offer.
It feels, given widespread agreement (including at UCU) that large parts of the sector are facing imminent financial peril, that there is very little that will shift this above-inflation offer much higher. UCU, in particular, took lengthy and very public industrial action last year, most notably a marking and assessment boycott – to very little effect, and it does not seem like the will of members (noting for instance the low UCU election turnout) is there for another fight of that intensity on pay.
The negotiations on the pay spine, contract types, equality, and workload often feel like a minor codicil in these offers – indeed, the negotiations agreed in 2023-24 (and marginally tweaked to meet union preferences this time round) never actually happened as the unions remained in dispute. Union members would be within their rights to vote to take industrial action in an attempt to remove the headline pay offer, but a continued dispute would risk losing the chance of potentially fruitful negotiations on working conditions.
Updated 11 September: Via the unlikely medium of an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph, UCU general secretary Jo Grady has hinted that the union is likely to recommend that members vote against the offer (as happened last time the union saw what is substantially the same offer) and raises the prospect of industrial action. The union has been unusually coy about saying this formally, but a spokesperson told us:
This offer of just 2.5% falls far below the public sector pay rises the government has just approved. Our members will now consider this offer as a total package through the union’s democratic bodies, but it is clear university employers think their employers are worth less than millions of their peers, and this paltry pay award will cause many to consider leaving the sector.